This nifty infograph called “A day in the Internet” is a little mind blowing. We all know that there is TONS of information being shared online through email, l media sites, and mobile technology, but when it is compared to something as regular as a photo album, one can’t help but be a little humbled.

Here are the statistics:

A Day in the Internet

Is User-Generated Content Dumbing Down Media?

With this information overload, I can’t help but have a little debate in my head on whether or not this plethora of user-generated content is making the world a better or worse place. Of course, I personally think it’s making the world a better place, but I am a digital utopian, which makes my opinion rather biased.

It reminds me of Andrew Keen’s book “The Cult of the Amateur” where he argues that “what the Web 2.0 revolution is really delivering its superficial observations of the world around us rather than deep analysis, shrill opinion rather than considered judgment.” This is what happens, he says, “when ignorance meets egoism meets bad taste meets mob rule.”

What do you think? Is media for better or for worse, with the increasing importance of user-generated content?

Web 2.0 was all about getting people to connect with one another and establishing a presence for them on the web. Now that you have gotten the chance to get to know each other through the web, it’s time for our computers to socialize. The aim of the next iteration of the web, Web 3.0, is that computers will be able to understand the content and the information they contain. Rather than the data just being a document, it will be put within context helping the computer to relate pieces of information and present them to you accordingly. Therefore, you will no longer have to sift through a pile of search results, some of which are irrelevant, to get the information you want.
While most of the semantic technology is still pretty much underdevelopment and improvement, we at the Thoughpick blog came up with a list to whet your appetite on, in no particular order.

For all the denizens…

Bing‘s reference search – Bing has a lot of hidden gems, one of those is its use of semantic technology. For Wikipedia results, you can click on the “enhanced view” and browse the Wikipedia article with a nifty vertical menu from within Bing.
Also some searches will provide you the option to “reference” search, which appears on the left pane. By selecting it, you will be able to access relevant Wikipedia articles, image results and more. Try it out, some of the searches that trigger this are Facebook and squirrel monkey.

Bing Search

Wolfram Alpha – This is an interesting search engine. It recognizes your queries and will bring you relevant information regarding it. For instance, if you put “new york” you will get information about New York city’s population, weather, and location with a couple of other options at the top for disambiguation.

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